Babak Kateb

Babak Kateb, MD, PhD (h.c.), is a neuroscientist and serial neurotech entrepreneur with more than 22 years of research experience. His research has been focused on the introduction of advanced diagnostics and therapeutics into clinical neuroscience in order to rapidly identify and introduce game-changing technologies to treat neurological disorders such as brain cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and other brain and spinal disorders. He did his educational training at TUSOM, USC, did his research fellowship at USC-keck School of Medicine, Department of Neurosurgery, and also studied VLSI system design at USC Department of Electrical Engineering at the Ming Hsieh Institute; he has an Honorary PhD from Uskudar University, Istanbul Turkey.

Babak established the Society for Brain Mapping and Therapeutics (SBMT) while doing his research fellowship 22 years ago at USC. Currently, he is the founding chairman of the board of directors & CEO of Society for Brain Mapping and Therapeutics (SBMT), President and Scientific Director of the Brain Mapping Foundation and Director of National Center for Nano-Bio-Electronics and Director of Brain technology and Innovation Park (BTIP); member of advisory board the center is focused on the integration of nanotechnology, cellular therapeutics/stem cell, medical device, and imaging; he is also a director of Brain Technology and Innovation Park and member of the advisory board of AiM Med Robotics and chairman of science advisory board of Spinothron (cancer/radiosurgery tech).

Babak was Director of Research and Development in the Department of Neurosurgery at City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center where he established collaboration with NASA and published and pioneered the technique for using NASA multiwall carbon nanotubes to activate macrophages for brain cancer immunotherapy. While at City of Hope, he received NASA Tech Brief Award for his pioneering work on sniffing cancer cells using NASA’s electronic nose.

In 2010, he joined the Department of Neurosurgery at Cedars Sinai Medical Center as a research scientist where he developed a partnership between Cedars-Sinai and NASA and established a clinical trial using NASA UV imaging for intraoperative brain mapping. He also patented technology to microwave brain cancer, which was approved by the FDA for soft tissue; the technology also could be used for brain, liver, head and neck, prostate, and breast cancer. He was also Scientific Director and a Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) at California Neurosurgical Institute from 2015-2017 where he co-authored a nano-neurosurgery paper inNature-Scientific Reports.

In 2015, the Society for Brain Mapping and Therapeutics and Brain Mapping Foundation Board of Directors presented him with Pioneer in Medicine award. He has been recognized by Vice President Biden, Mayor of Los Angeles, and Governor of California for his dedication to science. He is currently collaborating with Los Alamos National Lab (LANL) and had a dual appointment with NASA/JPL as a visiting scientist. His research at NASA and LANL involves the use of Artificial Intelligence(AI), Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and supercomputing for brain mapping and therapeutics, use of LANL advance ultrasonic technology for brain stimulation; Babak has many patents in these areas.

He has established a new publication with PLoSOne, which is called PLoSOne_ NeuroMapping & Therapeutics, which he serves as editor-in-chief and was the force behind 3 successful NeuroImage-Brain Mapping and Therapeutics special issues. He is the editor of the inaugural Textbook of Nanoneuroscience and Nanoneurosurgery, published by, Taylor & Francis (2013), and the editor of the inaugural Neurophotonic and Brain Mapping (2017).

Babak has been deeply involved in global neuroscience legislation through his close collaboration with the US Congressional Neuroscience Caucus as well as members of Canadian Parliaments. He has chaired 9 Congressional briefings: Brain Mapping Days (2012-2017) at the United States Congress on Brain Mapping; one Brain Research Day at the Canadian Parliament in 2013 and one Brain Mapping Day at the joint sessions of Australian Senate and Parliament in 2015. His initiatives have impacted the health care delivery to the wounded soldiers in the US. He has been one of the key players in President Obama’s BRAIN initiative and co-author of the G20 World Brain Mapping and Therapeutics Initiative (neuroscience20/N20) and African Brain Mapping Initiative. He has founded and Co-chaired G20 Brain Initiative Summits (Neuroscience20/N20) since the 2014 inaugural meeting in Australia.

He is an artist who has had galleries for his paintings and currently does medical illustration for medical textbooks; He is also an 18-time marathon runner.